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Post by rberman on Sept 17, 2019 5:47:44 GMT -5
Well, if we are talking about superheros behaving badly, we can't ignore the baddest of them all. I'm obviously talking about Superman.  (I mean, where are sites out there dedicated to his superdickery) I have a theory about his post-crisis reboot. The official story is they did it to attract new readers or whatever. But I know this is some kind of cover-up. The real reason is another one. They knew that, as soon as the bunch of old white dudes who were writing his stories left and new blood arrived, Superman would have to spend one issue out of two justifying all the horrible things he had done. Like the time he thought it was a good idea to spank an adult woman against her will, or when he abandoned his cousin (a teen girl who had just lost her family and had just arrived in unknown world) in an orphanage literally MINUTES after he had just met her, or when he date raped a poor girl. Really, every new author would have been excited to write his/her version of Avengers Annual #10 (where Claremont had to painful explain that's is NOT OK to leave a raped woman in the hands of her rapist, while smiling and waving). But, unlike Claremont, they would have had DECADES of similar stories at their disposal... Silver Age DC stories often had a pre-Silver Age romance vibe, and one of the most common romance comic plots was, "I thought he/she loved me! Why is he being so cruel!" Examples of this litter the covers and and interiors of Superman, Batman, JLA, and LSH stories in the 1960s, into the early 1970s.       |
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Post by zaku on Sept 17, 2019 7:20:32 GMT -5
Well, if we are talking about superheros behaving badly, we can't ignore the baddest of them all. I'm obviously talking about Superman. (I mean, where are sites out there dedicated to his superdickery) I have a theory about his post-crisis reboot. The official story is they did it to attract new readers or whatever. But I know this is some kind of cover-up. The real reason is another one. They knew that, as soon as the bunch of old white dudes who were writing his stories left and new blood arrived, Superman would have to spend one issue out of two justifying all the horrible things he had done. Like the time he thought it was a good idea to spank an adult woman against her will, or when he abandoned his cousin (a teen girl who had just lost her family and had just arrived in unknown world) in an orphanage literally MINUTES after he had just met her, or when he date raped a poor girl. Really, every new author would have been excited to write his/her version of Avengers Annual #10 (where Claremont had to painful explain that's is NOT OK to leave a raped woman in the hands of her rapist, while smiling and waving). But, unlike Claremont, they would have had DECADES of similar stories at their disposal... Silver Age DC stories often had a pre-Silver Age romance vibe, and one of the most common romance comic plots was, "I thought he/she loved me! Why is he being so cruel!" Examples of this litter the covers and and interiors of Superman, Batman, JLA, and LSH stories in the 1960s, into the early 1970s. Wow! That Detective Comics' cover is dope!  I perfectly understand that judging Silver Age stories with a modern sensibility can be a hollow exercise. My major issues with Superman are 1) He continued to do questionable things well into Bronze Age (like the aforementioned story where Superboy ban*ed a girl brainwashed to be his sex doll) 2) They made clear that his Silver Age stories (even the silliest and the cruelest) were in continuity to the very last issue before the reboot. For example, in this page from DC Special Series #26 (June 1981) they recapped Lois Lane 14 (January 1960) where the (in)famous spanking happened.  (note that they cut short just before the spanking, because even then they knew how wrong it was). So, while other writers addressed the most problematic things that other characters had done (like Claremont in the Avengers Annual), the Superman's staff just ignored them, even things that were integral to the Man Of Steel's history, like his fuc*ed up relationship with Lois Lane or his horrible mistreatment of Supergirl when she arrived on Earth. So, just imagine that reboot never happened. Do you think that new writers would have glossed over this material too? |
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Post by rberman on Sept 17, 2019 8:32:28 GMT -5
Silver Age DC stories often had a pre-Silver Age romance vibe, and one of the most common romance comic plots was, "I thought he/she loved me! Why is he being so cruel!" Examples of this litter the covers and and interiors of Superman, Batman, JLA, and LSH stories in the 1960s, into the early 1970s. Wow! That Detective Comics' cover is dope! Yup, Kaluta FTW. |
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Post by badwolf on Sept 17, 2019 10:45:29 GMT -5
One of the Superdicky things I read in the bronze age was Superman refusing (initially) to help clean up an oil spill because he "helps people, not companies" (  ). Batman eventually convinces him to help by telling him he'll donate the money to charity or something like that. It was in this issue:  |
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Post by zaku on Sept 17, 2019 11:29:44 GMT -5
One of the Superdicky things I read in the bronze age was Superman refusing (initially) to help clean up an oil spill because he "helps people, not companies" ( ). Batman eventually convinces him to help by telling him he'll donate the money to charity or something like that. It was in this issue: Yep, this guy is a dick. But let his cousin (who is surely is the person who knows him best) express her opinion.  |
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Post by mikelmidnight on Sept 17, 2019 11:38:07 GMT -5
This is one of my favorite ever covers (alongside the one where Supes is dressed as a witch doctor and forcing Jimmy to marry a gorilla). WTF is going on? What do you even call this kink? |
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Post by rberman on Sept 17, 2019 12:25:52 GMT -5
This is one of my favorite ever covers (alongside the one where Supes is dressed as a witch doctor and forcing Jimmy to marry a gorilla). WTF is going on? What do you even call this kink? "Shock story of the year," apparently. In case you thought the interior story mitigated the cover image... it doesn't. In fact, the cover seems to have been lifted right from this panel.  |
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Post by badwolf on Sept 17, 2019 12:51:19 GMT -5
Yep, this guy is a dick. But let his cousin (who is surely is the person who knows him best) express her opinion. I dunno, she seems kind of iffy too. |
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Post by zaku on Sept 17, 2019 13:36:48 GMT -5
Yep, this guy is a dick. But let his cousin (who is surely is the person who knows him best) express her opinion. I dunno, she seems kind of iffy too. Well, try to understand her. After losing her home and her family and being abandoned in an orphanage (after asking in tears to the only her relative in the universe if she could live with him), he was being ordered to to cultivate her powers in private and only come out to fight crime when he requested her presence as his "secret weapon" (his personal super-slave). The rest of the time she was forbidden from having a family, and spent her time spying on the other orphans through the walls. |
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Post by badwolf on Sept 17, 2019 14:48:27 GMT -5
That last part sounds like fun actually.
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Post by zaku on Sept 18, 2019 1:03:45 GMT -5
That last part sounds like fun actually. You have a point   |
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Post by zaku on Sept 18, 2019 1:24:46 GMT -5
Joking aside, I would like a modern approach to a story where Kara brings up all the horrible things Kal-El did to her...
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Post by brutalis on Sept 18, 2019 7:38:52 GMT -5
Joking aside, I would like a modern approach to a story where Kara brings up all the horrible things Kal-El did to her... Kara tossing Kal into the Phantom Zone for his punishment sounds about right! Let him be a ghostly Peeping Tom for a few hundred years and see if his attitude adjusts any! |
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Post by mikelmidnight on Sept 18, 2019 11:38:23 GMT -5
I dunno, she seems kind of iffy too. Well, try to understand her. After losing her home and her family and being abandoned in an orphanage (after asking in tears to the only her relative in the universe if she could live with him), he was being ordered to to cultivate her powers in private and only come out to fight crime when he requested her presence as his "secret weapon" (his personal super-slave). The rest of the time she was forbidden from having a family, and spent her time spying on the other orphans through the walls.
Not nearly as bad as E Nelson Bridwell's proposed origin for Black Orchid (which thankfully never saw print): that it was Kara-L practicing to be a superhero.
Aside from the fact that their power sets are non-identical and their personalities and skill sets are nothing alike, imagining Kal-L exiling his cousin who has spent the last several years of her life inside an hallucination, to a completely different alternate universe from her only living relative just so she can learn how to become a crimefighter is a dickery move beyond any other.
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Post by sabongero on Feb 21, 2020 18:04:46 GMT -5
 And I thought only Tony Stark had the drinking problem. Looks like Carol Danvers would go into action drunk at this time when she was an alcoholic during the late 90's as Ms. Marvel. |
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). Batman eventually convinces him to help by telling him he'll donate the money to charity or something like that. It was in this issue:
